Personify Partners With Erin Matson, Three-Time NCAA Women’s Field Hockey Champion, in Name, Image, and Likeness Agreement

• Personify Is Leading the Way in the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Sector With a First-Of-Its-Kind Name, Image, and Likeness (Nil) Agreement With Erin Matson, Forward, Varsity Field Hockey at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Personify, one of the fastest-growing US providers of Recruitment Process Outsourcing services, entered into a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) partnership with Erin Matson. Erin Matson is a UNC Women’s Field Hockey co-captain, three-time NCAA Division I National Field Hockey Champion, four-time ACC Field Hockey champion, member of the US National Field Hockey Team, and was named one of the top ten female athletes in ACC conference history by the ACC Network.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) is a critical issue, but few topics receive more attention in human resources and talent acquisition. When college athletes won the ability to participate in sponsorship deals earlier this year, Personify President and CEO Ryan Carfley (a former UNC Scholar-Athlete – Varsity Football) saw an opportunity to do something different and support aspiring college athletes. “60% of our employees are women, and we wanted our athletic partnership to reflect that. But when we learned nearly 80% of early NIL money went to football players, we knew we had to think outside of the box to find and promote more diverse talent,” Carfley said.

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Instead of following the pack to male sports for a sponsorship partner, Personify broadened the pool of athletes it considered by looking more closely at female college athletics, which has been underserved for decades. “As part of our commitment to DE&I, we wanted to expand our search—not narrow it—to find a great college athlete who shared Personify’s commitment to leadership and the pursuit of excellence,” said Carfley. “As a leading provider of HR services to Fortune 500 companies globally, we felt an overwhelming responsibility to re-set the bar for this kind of partnership and actively work to address inequities in any way we could,” Carfley said.

It didn’t take Personify long to discover Erin Matson. Matson is one of the most highly decorated field hockey players in the US, and her name is often mentioned in the same breath as notable UNC alums Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm. Through its partnership with Matson, Personify wants to inspire business leaders to continue to find ways to address the challenges of gender inequality. “While much progress has been made, we believe we have a responsibility to do more. And this sponsorship shows that when you look for the very best in slightly different ways, you don’t have to look hard to find extraordinary talent in plain sight,” said Carfley.

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When asked why she’s partnering with the firm, Matson said, “When Personify approached me about representing them, they explained who they were and what they were trying to accomplish not just as a business, but as an organization that’s a community member with a sense of responsibility. This partnership is about more than business for Personify. It’s about leadership and the pursuit of excellence. It’s about who they are as an organization, their values, and how they want to use their resources to help address a problem they see. We have a lot in common, so I’m thrilled to be working with the Personify team.”

Personify and Matson’s partnership will run through at least 2022 when Erin plans to return to UNC for her final year of athletic eligibility. Matson will appear in Personify videos, advertisements, social media posts, and events as part of the partnership.

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